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Rode's Wireless Pro mic kit lets you forget about 'clipped' audio
The Wireless Pro from Rode includes a lot of user-requested features -- from a charging case to 32-bit float audio. But at $399 it comes at premium.
Twitch takes on YouTube and Facebook Live with 'IRL'
Twitch wants vloggers to leave YouTube and Facebook Live behind. The Amazon-owned video streaming site is launching a new "IRL" section that will allow streamers to share their experiences at events, on trips abroad or even just to document their day-to-day lives. Videos can either be live streamed or uploaded for on-demand viewing, and from next year users will also be able to use their smartphone cameras to broadcast through the Twitch mobile app.
UK advert police explain to vloggers what an advert is
Vloggers, bloggers and social media celebs have captive, loyal audiences that make them prime partners for marketers. Like it or not, most new media stars dabble in advertising of one form or another -- you can't live on YouTube kickbacks alone now, can you? -- but it's not always easy to tell regular content from promotions. Not all product plugs are as blatant as Kim Kardashian's recent Instagram mishap, for instance. According to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), vloggers and kin have been seeking clear rules on what constitutes promotional content, and how it needs to be labelled. And to help them play by the rules, the ASA's Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) has today published new "vlogging advertising guidance," also known as the "common sense handbook."
Pathfinder focuses on crafting in latest dev video
Pathfinder Online's crafting system is the focus of this week's dev blog by Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey. Through crowdforging, the company hopes to develop improvements and features with the help of the community. In the included video diary, designer Stephen Cheney talks more about how resources and materials are gathered for crafting, the importance of tiers, refined items, and how important crafting will be in the game. The dev blog also discusses the Kickstarter rewards, the status of the guild land rush, and more. Check out the complete dev video embedded after the cut. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
MechWarrior vlog talks achievements, the Banshee, and more
Interested in MechWarrior Online? Got a spare 11 minutes and 43 seconds? Then you'll want to watch the latest Ask the Devs vlog which covers a wide range of topics relating to the sci-fi MMO's ongoing development. Topics include recent jump-jet changes, the game's achievement system, design challenges on the Banshee, and more. The full video clip is embedded after the cut. If you're unable to view it, there's a transcript on the official MWO forums via the links below.
Google gives users an easy out, adds YouTube to Takeout data transfer tool
Breaking up with a web-based ecosystem is hard to do, especially when you have several gigabytes of data invested in a specific platform. However, things just got a whole lot easier for disgruntled vloggers. Google recently added YouTube to its Takeout data migration service, which now gives users the ability to pull all of their uploaded videos from the company's servers in a single stroke. This groovy tool should definitely come in handy when you're busy shopping around your latest foreign film to different movie studios. In addition to being extremely easy to use, the service will also send an email letting you know that your download has finished. Simply set it and forget it!
YouTube gains translated caption support, tears down another language barrier
Aside from being powered by memes, likes and tweets, today's internet is strongly fueled by viral videos. King of the latter, YouTube has added yet another trendsetting feature to its repertoire. The Google owned video sharing service now gives its content producers the ability to add subtitles to their videos in over 300 languages. Leaning on Google Translate's software, this new feature gives YouTubers the option to add or request translated captions for their videos anytime during the content's lifespan. So, whether you're a casual vlogger, or an aspiring director hoping to have your recent short reach a broader audience, you now have to opportunity to snag some views on a global scale. Just be sure to remember us little people when those awards for best foreign film start rolling in.
Firefall video blog says farewell to levels, hello to skill
The team at Red 5 Studios has been working hard on making Firefall the best game it can be, and as it turns out, that happens to be a game without traditional levels. A new video blog featuring lead designer Scott Youngblood and development VP James Macauley drops the news that the level system is being discarded and replaced with a much more organic system for player growth. Under the new system, players still earn EXP. That EXP will be spent on specific upgrades at a player's discretion rather than marking off specific levels, allowing you to unlock the upgrades that feel relevant in the order you want them. It also places less emphasis on levels in head-to-head matchups, something Macauley stresses is important to the team. There's more than just the removal of levels at work, however; the development team is also overhauling crafting to be more complex and rewarding as well as developing a new system of equipment tiers to keep players advancing. The full diary just past the break only gives brief glimpses of several new systems, but Firefall fans should be quite happy with what's over the horizon.
The Queue: Live, from Hollywood, it's the Fox Van Allen show
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. The stunningly handsome Fox Van Allen will be your host today. I'm sure some of you are already familiar with my travels, but I've been in California since Tuesday. The last few days, I've been checking in at the Venice Beach offices of Tecca (my new day job), and yesterday afternoon, I went down to Irvine to get lunch with Mike Sacco. Of course, no trip to southern California would ever be complete without a trip to The Price is Right. I met up with actress Michele Morrow in Hollywood, and after a few mimosas, an afternoon of pricing games, and a cocktail at lunch, we went back and recorded a brief vlog. (What a terrible word that is. Vlog.) Enjoy. Oh, wait -- what's that? I have to answer your questions today, too? What nonsense is this? I'm supposed to be vacationing. Darren asked: Do you think Blizzard will take a few minutes while working on Mists and reduce the level requirement for the Outland cooking and fishing dailies? Its kinda dumb that they arent available until you character is already in Northrend.
Encode H.264 so it will play on your iPod
As of late I have totally gotten into Video blogging, both consuming and creating them. I have a nice camcorder, a copy of Final Cut HD Express, and lots to say. However, despite my general know how in regards to computers video encoding is something of a black art to me. I usually just export my videos using the 'iPod' setting that QuickTime provides, but I know that isn't the best way to do it.Ryanne Hodson, video blogger extraordinaire, has created a screencast at Freevlog that explains how to squeeze the best video for your iPod out of QuickTime. There is no way that I could have figured this out, so if you are into video but don't know your codecs from your filters check out this screencast for some pointers.
Democracy Player goes Intel (not quite Universal)
The Democracy Player is a cross-platform internet television viewer (or IPTV, for buzzword-compliance) that boasts over 500 built-in channels for your endless entertainment pleasure. It takes a bit of a different approach to internet television with support for a wide variety of aggregation services, including BitTorrent, and a full-blown channel guide.The player was recently updated to version 0.8.5 for all platforms, and there is now an Intel version of the app available - not to be confused with Universal. Their Mac OS X download page offers two separate downloads for PPC and Intel versions, stating that a Universal version is pending.Democracy Player is donationware and available from getdemocracy.com.
Free cartoons for your iPod
We mentioned this cartoon podcast ages ago, but it went away. Frederator Studios (makers of fine cartoons like "Fairly Oddparents") has a relaunched blog, and a podcast. But the fun part are the free cartoons they're providing. And this time there's more than one available! These are out-of-copyright toons with Betty Boop, Porky Pig, and Mighty Mouse, not to mention a few fairy tale characters... I have a few friends who have been too busy to rip content for their new iPods, and they are too cheap to buy anything (ahem), so maybe this will finally drop some much-needed video content on their new doorstops. Don't forget, you can also grab free videos from the Internet Archive.
Apple employee blogs commute
Have you ever wondered what it is like to commute to Apple's campus at Cupertino? Neither have I. However, that hasn't stopped Andrew Lin from vlogging his morning commute to the Mothership.The videos are all in QuickTime (what else?) and they are sped up by 30, so you need not experience the commute in realtime.[via Valley Wag]
FireAnt
I have recently discovered the joy that is vlogging. I used to be of the mind that if I couldn't read why should it be on a blog, but the last few months have been eye opening, thanks to the likes of Tiki Bar TV (not for the kids, but certainly not all that racy), Rocketboom, and Josh Leo.I've been using iTunes to manage my vlog subscriptions and it has done an okay job, but FireAnt looks like it could do a great job. The recently updated application contains a number of bug fixes, acces to the FireAnt vlog directory, and an option for multiple viewing sizes. I like what I've read about this app, and you can look forward to a review in the near future.
Apple releases iLife 06, Photocasting, iWeb addition
Apple today unveiled iLife 06, a major update to their award-winning suite of multimedia applications. The largest updates came to iPhoto, which can now handle 250,000 photos and features better, full-screen editing options. A major new feature is called Photocasting, which will allow an iPhoto user to publish their photos to the web using RSS technology, allowing anyone to subscribe to a feed of their images and the ability to be notified of updates. You can also subscribe through your own copy of iPhoto 06, which will allow you to actually download the images and use them as if they were your own, enabling editing as well as ordering prints, cards and now calendars.GarageBand 3 now features a "Podcast Recording Studio," along with professional podcast sounds, a Podcast Radio Engineer, iChat Interview Recording and iMovie Scoring.iMovie HD 6 adds Apple-designed iMovie themes, real-time effects, cinematic real-time titling, enhanced audio tools and effects, multiple open projects and video podcast/blogging abilities.iDVD 6 brings Magic DVD, widescreen DVD abilities, an enhanced map view and the much-requested compatibility with 3rd-party DVD burners to the table.A new addition to the iLife family is iWeb, a much rumored new app that does what everyone had assumed: it will allow .Mac members to easily publish content from other iLife apps such as podcasts, imovies, photos, blogs and more to their .Mac space. It features Apple-designed templates, easy flexible site creation, and iLife media browser and one-click .Mac publishing. I guess there was a reason behind that 1 TB bandwidth upgrade back in Dec.Even with all these great new features, iLife 06 still sells a single license for only $79, with a 5-license pack for $99, and is available today at the online store. I'm sure local stores will have it in soon, as well.
Create an intro for Cinematical
Attention movie loving Motion mavens! Our sister blog, Cinematical, is looking for a 30 second (or less) intro for their Sundance vodcast and they want you to make it. You know the sort of thing they are looking for, much like what our fantastic reader C. Robin Osborn did for us.Here's the deal, you use your finely honed skills and exquisite taste to design the ultimate Cinematical intro and you will win the one prize that no one can take from you: fleeting fame. Additionally, your work will get exposure to thousands of film fanatics and if you are in the film industry this could be the break you're looking for.Head on over to Cinematical for all the details.
Pod Guide.TV's ten essentials for your iPod
Pod Guide.TV has a post listing ten essential vodcasts for your brand spankin' new iPod (with video). Sure, you were excited when you opened your iPod and there wasn't a slab of meat waiting for you in the box, but now what are you going to watch on it?The ten essentials that Pod Guide.TV lists are great but there is one vlog that should be on their list but it is notably absent. Tiki Bar TV is by far the funniest vodcast out there. Check it out, and tell Dr. Tiki that Scott from TUAW sent ya.
